Immortal Obsession
by Gilbert's Left Arm
Summary: Kanda checks himself into a mental institution... because he can see ghosts. He knows he's going crazy, but the biggest problem is the fact that he can't tell who's living and who's dead. Not to mention there's the white-haired stranger in room 14 who keeps changing the numbers on the rooms... AU - Yullen/Arekan - Rated for language and eventual sexual references -


_So, here's a new fic from me that I've been wanting to write for ages, and after discovering the original first chapter draft yesterday morning, I couldn't not upload it… please enjoy!_

_**Warnings for throughout the fic**__: Kanda's and Neah's dirty mouths. They need to start eating soap sometime soon, I tell you~ Don't let their language distract you._

_**Immortal Obsession, Chapter 1**_

* * *

"Name?"

"Yuu Kanda."

The woman pulled a strange face at his accented reply, eyeing him with raised eyebrows over her thickly framed glasses. The tip of her pen was held delicately on her lower lip as she regarded him – or what she could see of him – over the particularly high desk. Long black hair, _very_ long. Dark, midnight eyes. An obvious scowl. His fists were clenched, resting on the surface in front of him. He clicked his tongue in annoyance at her.

"You're obviously not British."

"Tch… no. Why should I be?"

"Because it's easier to find and get into a place like this in your own country."

"I've already got an e-mail saying I've been accepted here."

She stared back at him steadily, still eyeing him when he said nothing more. The only thing she was receiving from him was a direct glower, causing her to sigh quietly (but loud enough for him to hear) and it triggered him to snap out the answer to the indirect question in an irritated tone.

"I'm Japanese."

"Hmmm, explains the name."

He just grunted and tapped his finger on the mahogany in the next silence that followed, all while she tapped away almost pointlessly at her ancient computer, before turning up at him again and he got a good look at her face for the first time. She was probably nearing retirement; her skin was heavily wrinkled, but her eyes still held fire and she appeared far from being worn down. She was also very pale, and it made Yuu feel something akin to a manly and uncaring version of pity at the lack of sun she probably got to have in this desk job.

_But how much sun does this weird woman get? Everyone in this fucking institution probably looks like they're vampires._

The window in the lobby had been sealed off (undoubtedly due to there being insufficient funds to fix a break) and a few infrequently flickering light bulbs thankfully provided it with a decent enough light source. Some spider webs sat in corners and old newspapers were strewn over a dusty coffee table. A fish tank lay empty, built into the wall near the door. The carpet was hard and scratchy underfoot, and he was thankful that he was not required to remove his shoes.

"How do you spell it, then?"

"…What?"

"How do you spell your name?"

"Tch, the kanji for '_the divinity'_, and then '_rice field-'"_

"Please tell this to me in a way I can understand this before I put you down as something stupid."

Yuu rubbed a hand on his face. It was clear his annoyed feelings to her were mutually exchanged. Hopefully he wouldn't be seeing much of her here in the near future. Stupid smug receptionists, thinking they were above him.

"Ugh, fine," he grunted, "Y-U-U K-A-N-D-A." He told her the letters one by one, his frown growing rapidly when he saw how long it was taking her to type each character.

"And your age, Mr Divine Rice Field?"

He scoffed and jerked his head to the side at the remark, but he couldn't be bothered to get into further argument. This woman was eating up his time and he didn't like it.

"I'm 19."

A genuine look of surprise invaded the receptionist's features for a second, the complete opposite from her brash expression from a few seconds ago.

Yuu took notice and snorted, "got a problem with that?"

"No…" the woman tapped in two keys on her keyboard and adjusted her glasses with a glance to the screen. "It's just," she spoke, her voice lacking the previous complacent tone, "…you're so young."

He twitched.

"You can't tell just my looking at me, lady?"

She sighed again and Yuu grinded his teeth, still smirking and holding his sarcastic front. However, the receptionist didn't dwell in his age for long (she probably though that best), and proceeded to ask more general questions. He answered them this time without much reluctance, while slowly realising she was avoiding requesting the reason why he was here in the first place.

_Hopefully they'll give that job to someone else, _he thought, _I'm sick of this woman and her weird attitude._

She had to get up out of seat to lean over and pass the stack of papers she had just printed.

"Take this to Room 62," she instructed, "it's about the twentieth door you'll see on your left. Dr Lee will fill out the rest with you and probably take it upon himself to be your personal doctor for your stay. He usually takes to fiery patients like yourself.

"Did you just sa-"

"He _really_ doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Tch."

The sheets felt strangely light and weightless in his hand as he walked with them by his side and away from the front desk. A long, cool draft brushed past his body but the paper, he vaguely recorded amongst his musings, didn't seem to catch the soft breeze. He exited the room and saw the dull corridor stretch out before him. Well, he wouldn't expect it to be bright and cheerful. This wasn't the type of place to have fun. The faded walls and worn-down doors along with the threadbare rugs seemed to him, in fact, highly fitting. Beneath those were floorboards, the wide gaps between them containing dust that lay there happily. He found that some places had had more wear than others, particularly in front of the door marked '27'. The wood was a much darker brown hue, and was rather flaky and rotten. Yuu turned his nose up.

_You'd think they'd have a cleaner or something. It might not be made for all sparkles but it really is fucking gross here._

His footstep's echoes were muffled only slightly by the thin fabric underneath him as he looked periodically towards the signs on the doors. Some of the brass digits had fallen off some time in the past and had not been replaced; leaving pale marks where they had previously been nailed in. The numbers, he also found, were also all very wrong. Completely random; 2, 24, 157. There were no set patterns whatsoever on both sides of the corridor – odds and evens were randomly clumped together.

_Some weirdo probably went around and changed them all. Explains the missing ones, too – he's moved them to other doors._

After a little time, he gradually began to discover the eerie quietness that seemed to set into the corners of the place; there was no low hum of central heating, despite it being the middle of winter, or just the general hustle and bustle he would expect here at the height of the day. He supposed it was just because the place was almost purposely designed to be fucking depressing and the budget was absolute shit.

"Another place the NHS couldn't give a damn about," he grumbled quietly to himself, leading him to laugh a while. British healthcare was free, but that didn't have to mean it was great.

_I just hope that don't end up treating me like I've lost my mind… even though I probably have._

Yuu's brisk speed pushed icy air against him, fanning the hair that draped down his whole back out like a dark cape. He hadn't tied it up today and he growled when he realised it was just going to get tangled and waste his life by making him brush it for a ridiculous amount of time. The coat he was wearing came down to just above the back of his knees, engulfing most of his body while keeping to the shadowy theme of his natural features. His shoes, or boots, were a dark ebony that made it difficult to distinguish between where they ended and his jeans began, which were held up with a jet belt that was covered with an inky-coloured t-shirt.

Basically, everything he was wearing was black.

He shoved his free hand into a pocket and continued on, eventually seeing a door click open and a man emerge from the room, his composure similar to his own.

"I'll see you in three days' time, Tyki," another voice called from inside, and Yuu caught the old '62' at the top. This was Dr Lee's office, he realised.

The so-called Tyki glanced over at the Japanese with interest, his lips forming a small conceited grin as he stared back with an expression that was left purposely blank. He could tell this man was judging him, and wasn't like he wasn't the same. What could be his reason for staying here? His confident and self-assured atmosphere had come across clearly – a complete opposite to the mental stability that would most likely be expected here. Even including Yuu. Whilst he was well aware of his own sanguine and certain personality, he had come to this place because he was beginning to feel the barriers inside his mind shift and creak in recent weeks.

The man he could only assume was Dr Lee appeared in the doorway with an overly-cheerful grin.

"…Three days it'll be," Tyki spoke, his voice low as he tipped his hat towards Yuu and Dr Lee before turning down the corridor and out of sight.

Confused, the doctor turned to the second place his first patient had nodded, only to find the Japanese staring back at him.

"Oh!" he appeared to perk up more than before (if that was even possible), "you must be Yuu Kanda!"

Yuu nodded.

"Great!" he beamed, "right this way, then. We'll get you settled in in no time."

He decided before he even set foot in the old office that he did not like Dr Lee. His attitude was far too cheerful and positive; something made him want to slap that absurdly large smile off his face. Well, at least he wasn't like the receptionist who would backchat him and called him that stupid name. He would be easier to put up with. Yuu would have to just try to stay calm under the sickly happy tone the doctor's voice held. And that other Tyki guy pissed him off, too. With his self-righteous smirk and the way he'd just looked over him like he was so much less important, was there anyone here in this institution he'd meet that he wouldn't want to punch the living daylights out of?

The room was the same as the parts of the large building he'd seen, the only difference being that the window was not boarded up (albeit it was so dusty and covered in dirt he could barely see out of it). It was average size and had a desk at the centre back of the office, with a chair on each side and a chunky white computer standing on it to the left.

"If you'd like to take a seat there, that'd be great."

"Yeah."

The only different was the optimistic aura the place seemed to give off, and that was obviously Dr Lee's presence and the small touches he had made to make the place where worked more personal and inviting. There were flowers in a chipped vase opposite the computer, and a painting of a sunset on his wall to the right.

Dr Lee pulled his chair closer to the screen as he adjusted the keyboard to face him.

"My apologies," he muttered as he frantically moved the mouse back and forth, "this old thing's a little slow."

Yuu mumbled a response, resting a fist on his chin as he crossed his legs and continued his observing. The other wall had a bookshelf that was perhaps three quarters full, mostly with medical books that suited his part of the field and a couple of scattered journals stuffed full of patients' notes. There was a photo in a frame, too, on the second shelf from the top. Arbitrarily curious, he edged his body closer and focused his eyes to get a better view. The picture had been torn in one corner and taped back together, while a section at the bottom seemed to be missing as a whole. Most of the edge was also blackened, and Yuu was starting to wonder why this photo was so significant that the doctor had gone to so much trouble to keep it there until he caught sight of exactly _who_ was in it.

It was Dr Lee with that ever present smile, not looking at all different that he was now, with both his arms wrapped around a young girl of maybe four or five years old. She had dark hair that framed her face, held up in little pig tails and mimicking the expression of the man. In fact, their features were very similar – their face shape was practically identical, and, also, the way their noses were…

"Lenalee?" he breathed.

The doctor had caught sight of one of his rare surprised expressions, his smile quickly disappearing off of his face when he heard the other. "Um, by any chance, do you recogni-"

Someone screamed.

Yuu's eyes squeezed shut and he felt his whole body tense at the ear-piercing noise. It wasn't a cliché girly scream from a horror movie – this was a cry of pain so intense it made the Japanese want to almost copy it. It was a cry of pure, undiluted and merciless pain, lasting out an unbelievably long time before slowly fading to silence.

He found his hands digging into his ears and the sides of his head, nails pushing so hard there were a few places he had drawn blood.

Looking up, he found the doctor in a similar position, although he was recovering a lot quicker and seemed to sigh when he returned the gaze. He stood up and went round his desk, patting Yuu on the shoulder as he walked.

"Sorry about this… that'll be Neah that needs help again."

"Neah?" Yuu echoed, irritated by his appointment being interrupted and instinctively got up and began following after him.

They didn't have to travel far – only to the room next door in fact - and he presumed that the person who had screamed was inside this one, explaining why it had been so loud.

Yuu caught sight of the faintly glinting '14' at the top of the door as it opened, before turning his attention to the 'Neah' that was within.

"Hey, buddy," the dark-haired doctor rushed over to a figure curled up on the floor, reaching his arms out and giving an attempt to scoop him up into a sitting postion.

'Neah' was visibly shaking – his whole body was tensing and untensing and he soon began to thrash around in the doctor's arms, letting out loud yells and trying his best to claw his nails through his skin. All the while, the doctor held him tightly, repeating things like "calm down" and "it'll be over soon, don't worry" over and over again.

Not really sure what to do, Yuu stood with his back against the wall and his arms tightly crossed, a frown still remaining on his expression as he almost passively watched the scene in front of him play through. His eyes remained unfocused as he retreated into his thoughts a little. Why couldn't someone else see to this person? Or, at least, he should have been made aware of the lack of staff at the institution if it warranted this. Sure, this was a likely place where people had mental breakdowns, but, surely everyone was important as-?

"You bastard! You fucking bastard!"

The Japanese jerked his head up only to see Neah's face inches away from his, angrily contorted into a scowl that was larger and deeper than the one he himself admitted he usually wore. His teeth were bared and an ugly scar ripped down one side of his face like someone had pulled a red marker through and down his skin. His hair was a stark, unnatural white and his eyes were silver-grey colour, with pupils currently smaller than the size of a pin-head as he growled inhumanly at Yuu.

He tried his best to remain composed. Did this attention seeker just curse at him for no reason? He hadn't even met him and he was already chucking profanities at him!

"What the _fuck_ did you just call me, you litt-"

"I said that you were a fucking bastard, that's what you are!"

Hands appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Neah's shoulders, pulling him gradually away from the taller man as he clawed and scratched at the doctor, who was now holding him at a distance that was as far away from his face as possible without weakening his grip. Yuu was about to follow, but his logic finally kicked in and overrode his violent actions. This person obviously had something wrong with him that made him do that. He could confess to himself that even though he really could be a dick a lot of the time, Neah had barely known him for a second, and had not even acknowledged him before his attempt to attack him. Dr Lee seemed to know how to handle him, though, and the Japanese soon saw the other patient begin to calm down.

"Are you alright now?" he heard the doctor ask calmly.

"Yeah."

"Will you and Allen be ok if I leave you two alone? Promise not to have another argument?"

"As long as you get that other guy to fuck off with you."

"Hey!" Yuu couldn't resist making a remark, even if was just a little one.

"Yes, yes, I'll get him to go away with me, but only if you tell me why you don't like him next time I come and see you, ok?"

"Ok."

"Once again," Dr Lee spoke as he shut and locked the door to room 14 "another thing I always end up having to apologise for is Neah's behaviour. He's _very_ unstable, as you can probably tell, and only really takes to a few people. Everyone else, well… he does what you have just seen."

Yuu sat back down in the chair he was before, quickly returning to his original position.

"Right, Mr Yuu Kanda."

"Just Kanda is fine."

"Ah, but," he tapped the files Yuu had given him, "Mrs Lawrey told me in her 'special notes/first impressions' section that you rather enjoy being called '_Mr Divine Rice Field'._"

"That fucking receptionist, I swear…" he growled.

Seeing that the Japanese wasn't comfortable with the joke, he quickly changed the subject.

"Tell me then, Kanda, why is it you admitted yourself into here? I understood from what you sent into your e-mail that you felt you did indeed need to come here and thus I accepted your request. But it would be much more helpful if you told me _exactly _what the problem was, hmmm?"

Yuu let out a long sigh, his tension increasing slightly as he hesitated before answering, "this is going to sound crazy, bu-"

"We deal with all kinds of crazy things here, Kanda, as you've just seen."

"…Fine. I can see ghosts."

Dr Lee stiffened, and the Japanese assumed it was from his comment, so he tried his best to expand.

"Or, at least, I think I can because other people can't see them so they can't be people… what's wrong now?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Don't worry yourself. You may not believe this, but this is a common problem, Kanda, you're not alone."

"Are you saying that there are other people here that… think the same way or something?"

"None here, I'm afraid, but there have been recent cases reported in other mental health hospitals so we can deal with your position quite nicely if all goes well."

He frowned. "So… are you saying that I can't see ghosts and I'm just hallucinating, or…?"

"Of course not – you are seeing the correct things. Ghosts do very much exist, trust me."

"…I hate to say this, but I'm confused."

"No need to be! In fact, you don't need to tell me anymore right now – you're good to go to your room and get settled in. That's the best thing for you – get used to this place. Your phone in there should be set up for your allowed weekly call."

"But if there's technically nothing wrong with me because what I'm seeing… exists… then why do I have to-?"

"Number 3! Off you go!" he grinned, shoving the papers back across the desk towards him.

"But I-"

"Neah might have moved the numbers on the doors round again – turn left and then it's fifth one on the right-hand si-"

"Listen to me when I'm trying to talk to you – I'm the fucking patient here, not you!"

There was a pause as the doctor fell silent. After, he adjusted his jacket and his glasses, switched off his computer and picking up his briefcase. He checked his watch.

"It seems that there is somewhere I need to be and I need to get organised for it. Please leave, Kanda, I'll see you at the same time in three days."

"Tch."

Yuu strode out of the office, slamming the door behind him and getting a reaction in the form of a little unhappy squeak from Dr Lee. As angry as he was, he had no choice but to follow his instructions, because he had no others.

He felt something collide with his chest.

"Oh, gosh, I am so sorry! I'll look where I'm going next time! Excuse me!"

"What are you talki…" he trailed off as he looked down to see someone smaller than him, holding a face that he had just come to recognise in the past few minutes.

"…Neah?"

The boy (yes, it was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen) look back at him with confusion.

"I'm Allen Walker, sir."

"Where's Neah, then? And why do you look you like him? Are you … you're shitting me - you have exactly the same _fucking scar_ on your face. Don't lie to me and pretend to be all innocent."

'Allen' began to tear up, small drops trickling down his mismatched cheeks. "Please don't compare him to me! I hate him so much and he's so cruel to me, all the time!"

Yuu slapped a hand onto his own face and pushed past the white-haired boy. "I don't have any time for this. Leave me alone and go and screw with someone else."

"But…"

Allen looked back at him, his face holding an extremely hurt expression.

Yuu had already disappeared.

"He was the only one that didn't know, Neah – the one that you yelled at?" he whispered at nothing, and then freezing for a second to listen out for something.

Seemingly content with the reply he had got, he shrugged and walked back through the locked door to room 14.

* * *

"Hello?"

"Yuu Kanda; I want to speak to Lenalee."

"Oh, you again. I'll put you though, hang on."

By now, the apartment lobby's phone operator had gotten used to this caller and always knew who he wanted – either the girl with the pigtails or the strange ginger boy with the eye patch. They were the only people he was seemingly civil to, so after ten or so calls he began to ignore the attitude he got from him.

"Kanda!" a voice spoke cheerfully through the speaker after a few moments of dialling and connecting tones.

"Hey, Lenalee. Just wanted to let you know I'm pretty much settled here, so-"

"Is that Yuu-chan?" a nasally voice interrupted their short conversation, "let me speak to him, quick! I need to tell him something!"

"Wait your turn, Lavi!" Lenalee scolded, "ah, you can probably guess anyway that he's over."

"Tell him to use my last name, or at least to stop fucking calling me with the _chan_ suffix. The stupid rabbit's not Japanese."

"I heard that, Yuu-chan!"

"Shut up!"

"Guys, please, for once can we stop? Kanda, where are you staying, anyway? You never told us."

"Only because you'll tell the rabbit."

"…That I would, yes."

"…Well?"

"Tch. A.R Red Block"

Silence.

"What's wrong now? Rabbit, have you got hold of th-"

"Kanda…"

"Oh you're still here, Lenal-"

"_Kanda._"

"What?"

"The A.R Red Block… burnt down twelve years ago. It was the fire that killed my brother, remember?"

* * *

_Thank you so much for reading~_


End file.
